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CCGaDay Day 19: Favorite set/expansion

Submitted by Allen on Fri, 09/19/2014 - 00:00

I think I have two favorites, depending on whether I think of it as "what do I have the fondest memories about" vs "what set did the most for it's game".

For fondest memories, it would be the Trouble with Tribbles expansion for First Edition, because that's the set I got to travel to Norfolk to playtest, and also because our local group played the *hell* out of Tribbles CCG during the playtest. (Like, spent a weekend at the cabin doing nothing but playtesting.) I spent a weekend running piles of Tribbles in different formats against players to try and tune the evil-level. (And if you hate what came out, thank me for what coulda been).

As a set, it may not measure up to OTSD or Blaze of Glory, but it's just full of fun stuff. Tribbles. Orbital Weapons Array, Chain Reaction Ricochet. Tribbles hiding in backgrounds of shots. (And the TwT starters were very good). It was fun to test, it was fun to play when it came out.

The set that did the most for it's game (and is also easily my favorite set *from* that game) is Unglued from Magic: the Gathering. To me, that was the turning point where WotC recognized that some people were just playing for fun, and you could have a sense of humor about things while still being a competitive and quote-unquote serious game. There were wacky combos, and denimwalk (can't be blocked if your opponent is wearing jeans), and cards named "Look at me, I'm the DCI". Unglued (and it's sequel Unhinged) were the admission that CCGs, at the end of the day, are games and meant to be fun. And they started doing more fun things after that, because they realized that there was a market for sets that weren't aimed for the competitive crowd. Stuff like the recent Conspiracy set, or Commander or Planeschase.

And obviously, the honorable mentions here just go on and on and on. :)